The Unforgiven
by niyrocks
Summary: The Unforgiven- these thirteen chapters are the first to a more massive story. Vegeta has his own doubts, Piccolo has a choice, and Niy has Mia. Continue reading in the Next story- Nothing Else Matters.
1. Default Chapter

Niy looked at the night sky and took a deep breath, the sight of the world hidden underneath her green eyelids. She felt her curly long red hair gently sway with the caressing night breezes and breathed with a rhythm that seemed to swell and release with the pace of the world. Her Namek eyebrow bulges melted from a furrowed scowl to a soothed tranquil expression, something very rare. But then again she herself was pretty unusual, so even this exceptional emotion fit to her style. Her navy blue baggy pants billowed and gathered its folds in the wind and her white armor and tucked cape echoed the same movements, fluttering wordlessly in the wind. The folds of cloth on her white armor flapped and wrapped themselves around its battered and bruised edges, as if clinging to the memory of pain that had marked itself blatantly on her woven coverings.  
She sighed and opened her eyes, her mouth reforming into the disgusted, dissatisfied scowl that constantly plagued her smooth feminine grace. She forced herself out of nature's balance and charged forward onto a different rhythm, her own rhythm, taking each following breath with pride and a lust for more. It was all she ever cared for, and it was all she ever wanted. To breathe was an act of defiance in itself, and the more she breathed, the more she new that she could battle life, battle destiny, and battle the lurking death that hid in the shadows that fleetingly traced her feet. So she inhaled with the need a starving child has for the food it longs to eat, and the longing a forgotten man has in a desert for water he can not find. She breathed and she breathed and she breathed.  
And then she picked her feet up and walked. She let her pointed shoes sink into the cool wet sand and she walked into the ocean. The salty taste bit her tongue and the waves grappled with her legs as they threatened to tow her into its mighty grasp, but she walked steady, her purpose thick and firm, into the darting waves. The waves splashed and rippled like the rising and swelling of a giant creature's lungs that seemed to awake and roll into life. But she kept on walking, stride by stride right into the ocean's mouth. Stride by stride by stride by stride.  
And then she ran. Niy raced almost fervently into the roaring frothing jaws of the monstrous sea. She waded through the murky tide, baring her white fangs, mimicking the water's rage. Splish-splash, splish-splash, splish-splash she waded into doom. A whipping tail of spray stung her side, but it did not deter or alter her from her course. The monster receded into deeper waters, waters several times higher than Niy's head.  
Niy smiled smugly for an instant and then leaped above the waves and into the air.  
And Niy flew. Calling upon her ki, Niy spiraled into the air and felt the burning of her power lick and stoke her blood. The ocean slithered to larger waters and deeper depths, making it harder and harder for Niy to keep up. Niy grimaced and pushed herself for all she was worth, summoning all the ki she could muster. She gaped in astonishment as she felt the burning sensation slip away. She wavered and dipped in the air, gasping and wobbling, trying to regain some amount of self control. She felt the ki's warmth fade and the frozen state of nothingness chill her spine. Screaming, she dived awkwardly into the water. She closed her mouth and pushed herself to the surface, sucking and gulping huge breathes of frosty salted air that disarmed her and made her cough in giant tremors that shook her whole body. Her clothes and cape weighted her down and with each struggling kick hugged her body, hampering her agility and movement. The ocean whirled around her as it circled its prey. The cape lashed itself around Niy as she used one arm to battle to keep her afloat. Above her she stared in horror as the shifting muscles of the water and its grinning teeth of white sea foam snarled with it's spitting spray and roared with it's lashing limbs of underwater currents.   
"No, no," she screamed in denial, "You cannot take my breath from me. You cannot take it away!"  
The ocean slammed its entire force into her in a final roar of ferocity and pulled her downwards, into the giant black pit of its stomach. Niy's lungs turned to ice as she tried to intake more air, but the ocean pummeled into her open mouth and nose and claimed her as its own. Niy's cold blue eyes flashed, faded, and rolled themselves clumsily into the back of her head. Her body drifted into the blackness. Down and down and down and black. 


	2. The Unforgiven(2)

The ocean waves gently lapped the shore of the Kami island. The sunlight reflected off the water in a cascade of shimmers and sparkles. The few palm trees there were flirted their leafy fronds with the subtle breeze.  
Master Roshi sat on his lawn chair with his red-framed, green-tinted sunglasses, soaking the sun's rays into his aged body. He blushed and gave off a goofy grin as he stared into a porn magazine, saliva dripping from his mouth. He hummed to himself, imagining the beauty in the magazine with her arms around him and her full lips in a silly pout. He smiled and his cheeks grew a shade redder.  
The turtle rolled its eyes slowly and settled its head back onto the warm sand. He closed his eyes and tried to settle into a peaceful, lazy sleep. He let his lungs release the air kept inside him and took in fresh new salty air. Something fuzzy clogged his nose. The turtle raised its head in alarm and found a dead body lying in front of him.  
"A dead body?! Ew," the turtle thought, so overwhelmed with fright that he waved his flippers frantically in the air.  
"M-master Roshi, oh, Master Roshi," the turtle stammered, backing away from the alien carcass.  
"What do you want Turtle?" Master Roshi didn't even look up from his magazine. "Can't you see I'm busy?"  
"M-master Roshi," the turtle pleaded, looking with wide eyes at the body the ocean was washing onto the beach.  
"Turtle, what do you- jumping Jehosephat! A dead body," Roshi exclaimed, jumping so far above his chair that he flung the magazine away and fell backwards into the sand. Shaking his head and spitting sand out of his mouth, Master Roshi reached for his staff and pulled his shaky degenerate body up.  
"Well if it's dead it can't hurt me," Master Roshi thought as he scuffed through the sand over to the green-skinned body.  
"Green skin?" Master Roshi pulled the dead body by a limb onto the dry sand and flipped it over. "Why this looks like a Namek," though the Turtle Hermit. "But I thought all Nameks were bald," he thought, eyeing the long red rope of curly hair that came from the body's head. His eyes then flew down the wet wrinkles and folds of the namekian clothing. Master Roshi turned a bright shade of red. "And I didn't think there were any female Nameks either. Hmm," Master Roshi concentrated, holding his forearms behind his back, "It's not every day a dead body washes up on my island. I better tell someone about this."  
"Krillen," Master Roshi shouted, "Krillen, I need you, come here!"  
"Yo Master Rosh' what's up," Krillen shouted from a window inside the house.  
"Call Goku's house and tell him he needs to come over right away. Oh, and tell him to find Piccolo and bring him over, too," Master Roshi yelled his reply.   
"Uh, okay," Krillen said confusedly, "But what for?"  
"I need to talk to them," Master Roshi replied, "About this." Master Roshi pointed toward the lifeless form at his feet.  
"Ew, what is that," Krillen asked as he furrowed his eyebrows and stared in disgust.  
"That's precisely why I need you to call Goku," the Turtle Hermit screamed impatiently. "Now go call him!"  
"Okay, okay, you don't have to get so crabby about it," Krillen said as his bald head disappeared from sight.  
"About time," muttered Roshi to himself.  
Below the old man, a single digit of a green hand twitched. An eyelid fluttered open and Niy's chapped lips parted in the blinding sunlight.  
"I breathe," she thought as she weakly smiled. "I still breathe." Niy's eyelids dropped and fell unconscious again. 


	3. The Unforgiven(3)

Gohan looked up at the clouds and thought he saw Piccolo-san's face and smiled. He felt the wind-bent grass tickle his skin and laughed quietly to himself. He heard Chichi inside the house, complaining loudly about the kitchen sink to the murmurs of a sympathizing Goku and his smile grew wider.  
"What a beautiful day," he thought. "The Earth never looked better."  
The peace and the harmony was casually interrupted with a ring from a phone inside his house. Gohan sat up with a puzzled and excited expression on his face. It was rare for anyone to be calling their house, and the last couple of times it had happened, the calls had contained bad news. Gohan pushed himself upward and jogged back to his home. As he reached for the doorknob to enter, he recognized his father's down to earth, serious tone.  
Gohan frowned. His wonderful dreams were about to end. As he opened the door, he saw his father place the listening part of the phone back onto the receiver. Chichi stood, nervous and worrisome as she looked at Goku with frightful eyes. Goku looked at Gohan at first without recognizing him, and then he awakened from his thoughtful reverie.  
"Ah, hello Gohan, you're just the person I wanted to see," his father said with a small smile. "I need you to find Piccolo for me."  
"Piccolo-san? But why, Dad?"  
"It seems a body has washed up onto the Kami House Island, Gohan," Goku replied sheepishly. "And Master Roshi thinks it's Namek, but he's not sure. I need you to tell Piccolo that we need him over at the Kami house as soon as he can get there."  
"Excuse me," Chichi interrupted, "But Gohan is not going to talk to that Mr. Piccolo! He needs to stay home and –"  
"At ease, at ease," Goku said, softening his facial expressions and putting his hands on Chichi's shoulders, "It would save time if Gohan could go ask him instead of me, and once he's done he'll come straight home and study. Won't you Gohan?"  
Gohan nodded his head vigorously, thinking that the more eager he seemed to please her, the quicker she would give in. And it seemed to work.  
"Okay, but you MUST come right home after you see that Piccolo," Chichi said, her frown softening to a slight smile. Suddenly she gritted her teeth and turned on Goku. "But as for you Mister-" Chichi shouted.  
"Uh, I have to go now Chichi, bye," he finished rapidly as he gave her a goofy grin, put two fingers to his forehead and teleported out of the room.  
"Argh, that Goku! It's a wonder that I worry about him so," Chichi fumed, throwing pots and pans around.  
Gohan chose the moment to tiptoe out of the house and quietly slip the front door shut. Sighing in relief at having not been caught, Gohan remember ed his favor to his father and smiled happily.  
"Piccolo-san, I'm coming," Gohan thought cheerfully as he focused on the Namek's ki and immediately took flight fueled by the power of his ki. 


	4. The Unforgiven(4)

Dum...da-dum...da-dum... Niy's heart beat again, but something was changed. Sure she still had skin- she could feel the dryness of it itch. She still had muscles- they spasmed out of control when they started to receive oxygen again. She still had her mind- over and over again she felt herself drowning, felt herself not understanding, felt herself drift into death uncontrollably. Inside, her body, her mind, and her soul shivered simultaneously in fear and dread as she anticipated and re-lived each memory of death again and again. As she breathed the memory seemed clearer, more painful, more real until she opened her eyes, moaned with pain, and realized, "By Kami, it was real."  
She checked her exhausted limbs and was met with a biting pain that gnawed on her nerves to no end. Niy bit her tongue so hard it bled and its salty taste rotted in her teeth. She spat out the grotesque taste and checked for her ki, the only real reason she bothered to keep herself alive. It responded with a biting cold, a pointed frost that clung and instantaneously took her over. Where her ki had once warmed, reassured, and comforted her, it now chilled, frightened, and overtook her. She lifted her face from the sand just enough to see the glowing white aura around her body pierce its light into her eye. She snarled as the brightness pained her and felt hopeless as her ki continued to grow without a will, a reason, or a hope.  
Niy looked up at the sky above her and watched a black bead darken into a form of formidable weight. Goku placed a firm hand on her shoulder.  
"Enough is enough, I don't know who you are but please calm down, you're not in any danger," the Saiyan said.  
Niy closed her eyes and breathed shakily, but more slowly in and out. Hesitantly, she reached for Goku's arm for support as she mentally suppressed the icy tendrils of her new ki.  
"She don't look half bad," Master Roshi said, giddy.  
Niy jerked her head up at him in a snarl, causing her to lose her balance again. Goku swiftly caught her and helped her to right herself. It was then he noticed her hard and cold blue eyes.  
"You have the eyes of an android," Goku said surprised. He then furrowed his eyebrows deeper into his skin and twisted his hands tighter and harder around Niy's wrists. "You better explain yourself right now."  
Niy bared her fangs at Goku and yanked her wrists back out of his grip, surprising Goku with her act of strength.  
"I am NOT an android," Niy hissed. "And I did not come so close to death just to be subjected by you." Niy rubbed her wrists from where Goku's hands had clenched them. Her blue eyes slid over to focus on the old man in front of her. Her Namekian eyebrow bulges narrowed as she said, "And you are a pervert, old man."  
Master Roshi paled as he realized she knew what he was thinking. He backed away from the new visitor to his island, choosing to hide behind a palm tree for safety.   
Niy switched her gaze back to Goku again. She smirked and said quietly, "You know, I was created to kill you Goku."  
Goku crossed his arms and smirked back at her. "Somehow I'm not surprised. You androids are all the same," he replied.  
Niy's eyes flashed with anger and a vein started to bulge from her head.  
"Listen, and listen well Spawn of the Saiyans- I am NOT an android, never was, never will be. Of that you can be certain."  
"The only thing I'm certain about is that you're some freak of nature, literally," said a gruff voice from above. Piccolo, The Namek, quickly entered the scene with a cloud of dust and the thump of his weight hitting the sand. 


	5. The Unforgiven(5)

Niy paused in indecision as the Namek landed. It wasn't that she feared him, it was just that Piccolo was the closest thing that resembled her in any way, shape, or form, and she was reluctant to having to deal with him.  
"What are you here for, Piccolo," Niy snarled after the awkward moment.  
"I could ask the same of you," Piccolo growled back. "But there's only so much you want to know about a freak."  
Niy hissed back in irritation, "My name is Niy, and I am not a freak! Compared to your miserable Namek genes, I am far perfected."  
"But not perfect," Piccolo retorted back. "You are far from the perfection the androids displayed, so don't flatter yourself."  
Niy worked up into a rage and hunkered down into a fighting pose, shouting, "Then let me prove my worth!"  
Suddenly, Niy charged into the air, ready to beat the hell out of the Namek who was taking up a defensive position.  
"Stop this right now," Goku said, instantly appearing between the charging Niy and Piccolo, making Niy slam to a halt. "I did not come here to fight. My wife is already peeved because I left the house to see a dead body that is obviously not dead. If you'll excuse me, my family needs me."  
Niy blinked in confusion. This was either the dumbest person she ever met or he was extremely powerful and ignorant of her.  
Piccolo stared at him with a scowl on his green face. Goku was underestimating the prey.   
Niy shook off her astonishment and laughed evilly. "Be excused? Oh, no, no, you're not excused," Niy yelled. "In fact if you want to leave, I'll give you a free ride- a free ride to the next dimension!" Niy raised her hands above her head, ready to power up.  
"Go ahead," Goku said smiling smugly.   
"Goku are you that stupid?! Just feel her power level," Piccolo cried stupefied.  
"Don't worry Piccolo, she isn't a threat."  
The Namek raised a green bulge of his eyebrow and thought, "I know Goku has grown monumentally in power, but he's acting as if this freak's blasts won't even leave a scratch. But then again, when did I start caring about what happened to Goku?" Piccolo bared his fangs in a growl, but didn't move another inch.  
"You'll regret you didn't heed Piccolo's warning," Niy said, a confident one-sided smile on her face.  
"We'll see about that," Goku replied, stretching hos arms out as far as they would go. "Here," he said, "Take your best shot."  
Niy frowned at Goku's mockery of her power and summoned her ki to finish this monkey-man's life for good. She smiled, feeling victorious as she felt the power swell inside of her. Instantly, an icy chill crawled up her spine and flooded her veins. Niy screamed in pain as she felt her body solidify and stiffen.  
Goku smiled knowingly. Niy had never stood a chance.  
Piccolo glared at Goku, thought of a few four-lettered words in Namek, and eyed Niy again cautiously.   
Although she was a complete mystery to him, there was something familiar about her power. He could feel its icyness, its waves of motion, and beneath that, he could feel a constant drumming and pounding that reminded him of the heartbeat of the Earth. It was then that Piccolo became frozen as realization whacked him over the head.  
"Goku," Piccolo's voice snapped, "Do you feel that? Her power resembles that of the Guardian of the Earth! You can feel Earth's spirit inside of her!"  
"What," Goku mumbled to himself questioningly as he focused on Niy's increasing power. "You're right Piccolo. She feels like… a giant spirit bomb or something."  
"What did you just say?!"  
"I said Niy's power feels like she's a giant spirit bomb," Goku shouted back.  
In side his mind Piccolo trembled. In all of their other fights, the other Earth had always been on their side, and the Z fighters had always taken the Earth's assistance for granted. What would happen to them now that the Earth had chosen to root for the bad guy?" 


	6. The Unforgiven(6)

Niy's eyes were blinded by her own aura of white light. Sorting out the ki signatures, Niy tired through her pain to focus her energy into her hands. Instead of storing itself in her fingers, the energy formed into a ball above her hands. Not caring enough to pay attention to the difference, Niy threw the spirit bomb at Goku.  
  
Goku blanked as he saw the spirit bomb coming, no one else had ever been able to do that move. The blue-white ball of intense brightness floated toward him and magically stopped. It spun itself around slowly in the air as if recognizing Goku for the savior of Earth he had been so many time before. The ball glare off a dull yellow glow that seemed to blaze as it was reflected in a once invisible aura around Goku's body. Goku slightly smiled as he felt the familiar tug of the Earth's power encourage, reassure, and warm him through his skin and into his blood.  
  
The spirit bomb, having realized his foe was not a foe at all, flung itself back at Niy, receiving its power full force and ending her hold onto consciousness with a cry of pain. She fell into the sand and the waves of the ocean lapped at the island's beach greedily.  
  
A bead of sweat dripped from Piccolo's forehead. What the Namek had just seen confused him more than ever. He had seen her evil, felt the darkness radiate from her ki and then her ki had suddenly changed from a lukewarm anger into a pit of frozen despair. To make things worse, her ki had been packed with the force of the Earth. Did the earth turn on its fellow warriors?  
  
"No," the Namek thought to himself, "That Niy creature had thrown a spirit of her own creation at Goku, and the power of the Earth had recognized him some how. The power had gone back to its source.  
  
Goku looked at Piccolo with concern and confusion. "What the heck just happened here, Piccolo?"  
  
Piccolo narrowed his eyes and said, "I need you to tell me exactly how you felt when she threw the spirit bomb at you."  
  
Goku's eyebrows furrowed deeper into his skin. "I had no time to react," he said in a low voice, "And I knew the bomb would hit me, so I held my breath in anticipation to take the brunt of the spirit's bomb's force. It was then that I felt something singing in my blood. The spirit bomb stopped and sang back to some inner part of me. It was like the Earth was communicating with its- that's it," Goku exclaimed. "The Earth must have chosen someone to wield its power."  
  
Piccolo frowned and slightly nodded his head. "It probably got sick of someone else always fighting its battles," Piccolo sneered. "It's about time," he grumbled.  
  
"Does that mean the Earth has a chosen a new Guardian?"  
  
Piccolo froze mid-breath. He stared at Goku with a mixed look of shock and amazement as realization struck him hard.  
  
"That might mean Dende's in trouble," Goku added.  
  
The Namek scowled, mad at himself that Goku had (for once in his miserable existence) beaten Piccolo to the punch.  
  
"We had better head for Kami's lookout right away," Piccolo snarled, turning to take off into the air. "We should take that Niy creature with us," he said, bending his knees, prepared to launch into the sky.  
  
"Then why don't you carry her," asked Goku mischievously.  
  
Piccolo turned his head, glared at the Saiyan, said, "There's no way I'm touching that thing," and used his ki to blast into the sky.  
  
Goku shrugged to himself, smiled, threw Niy's body over his shoulder and launched himself into the air, right after Piccolo. 


	7. The Unforgiven(7)

Dende looked at the Earth's glowing yellow sun and grinned happily.  
  
"Mr. Popo, the Earth never looked so beautiful.  
  
"The Earth does look exceptionally wonderful today," Mr. Popo agreed cheerfully. "I don't see how anything could ruin it."  
  
Dende's searching eyes glazed over the world beneath him and focused on two pinpoints of growing flame. His mouth zoomed open in surprise.  
  
"Mr. Popo, prepare the lookout for guests," Dende said, walking as close to the approaching figures as possible.  
  
"Yes, young Kami," Mr. Popo said with a slight bow before walking into the temple-like building.  
  
Piccolo landed on the structure first with Goku not even a half-step behind him.  
  
"Ah, Piccolo, you're back! And Goku, too?" Dende's eyes focused on the body Goku now carried in his arms in front of him. "And who is this?"  
  
Piccolo frowned, immediately causing Dende to lose his smile. "That's what we need to find out," Piccolo stated flatly. "She calls herself Niy and she's-"  
  
"A female Namek?!" Dende stood wide-eyed as he stared at the unconscious body.  
  
"Something like that," Piccolo muttered  
  
"Do you feel okay, Dende," Goku asked suddenly.  
  
"Do you feel any different than normal," Piccolo asked, reinforcing the importance of the questions by the tone of his voice.  
  
"No, I feel fine. In fact, I was feeling wonderful until you guys came," Dende replied honestly.  
  
"Thanks," grumbled Piccolo sarcastically as he folded his arms thought.  
  
"Actually, if you want, I can probably search her memories," said Goku out of the blue.  
  
Piccolo returned, "I was counting on it, but I need to ask Dende something first."  
  
Turning towards his younger counterpart, Piccolo calmly asked, "Dende, in Namek's history was there anything equal to the Earth's guardian?"  
  
Dende furrowed his green Namek brow, "Well, as you know, the Eldest nameks guard the dragonballs on Namek, so if I was to make any comparison between Earth and Namek, I would say that the oldest Namek is Earth's Guardian."  
  
Piccolo's frown deepened. "I came to the same answer," he said. "But that's not what I'm looking for." Piccolo thought for a second before adding, "Nail was a Namek trained in 'the old ways'. Was there any Namek in history of 'the old ways' that was empowered by the planet itself?"  
  
Dende closed his eyes and dug into his deepest memory. "There was a legend long before the years of Frieza and long ago on our original planet during an era when 'the old ways' were not old and were practiced all over the planet. Fighting back then was both an honor and a tradition. The bravest, most honorable, and most skilled warrior was called the planet's Champion. It was said that he was blessed with the power of the planet so that if it was ever in trouble, the true Champion of the planet would be there to protect it with his life," Dende said, his thoughts traveling back to the present.  
  
Piccolo looked down at Niy's still body.  
  
"So what does all of this mean," Goku asked quietly.  
  
"It means that the Earth has chosen its Champion," Piccolo growled. 


	8. The Unforgiven(8)

"Do you really think so, Piccolo," Dende asked.  
  
"It's the only plausible explanation I can come up with," he replied.  
  
"Who is Namek's Champion now," Goku asked.  
  
"There isn't one now," Dende responded matter-of-factly.  
  
Piccolo's nose crinkled as if some foul smell had passed his way. "Why aren't there anymore?"  
  
"I don't know Piccolo. The legend says that when the last Champion died, there was no one left to replace him, so the last Champion's spirit was absorbed into the planet. There was no body left to bury."  
  
"And planet Namek blew up," Goku added.  
  
"Wonderful," Piccolo mumbled, "History comes back to bite us in the ass again."  
  
Niy's eyes shot open and quickly darted over the three forms in her vision. She jumped to her feet and landed badly, almost losing her balance.  
  
"Welcome back to reality," spat Piccolo.  
  
Niy's eyes scanned her surroundings quickly and found them to be nothing like the island she last remembered.  
  
"Where have you taken me," she asked in a threatening tone.  
  
"Somewhere where you can't hurt people," Goku said smartly.  
  
"And what are you going to do with me? I suppose I am at your every mercy," she growled, eyeing the three down and trying to form a plan of escape.  
  
"Yes," Piccolo gruffly replied, "You are and the first thing you can do is put away any ideas of escape out of your head because it's not going to happen."  
  
Niy scowled, "Get out of my head, Namek."  
  
Piccolo returned an even uglier scowl and hissed, "I didn't need to go into your cracked head to see what you were about to do, freak."  
  
Goku shook his head in frustration. "Look, I'm, sure you can handle things here Piccolo. I have to go home and see if we have to buy more kitchenware. Bye!" And with those last words, Goku put two fingers to his head and disappeared.  
  
"Great," muttered Piccolo, "So I get stuck with the freak."  
  
Niy bit back a retort, knowing she was too weak to back up her words. Her nails dug into her fleshy palm as she clenched her fists in shame.  
  
"If you're not going to talk, then I have no use for you," Piccolo stated darkly. "Perhaps Mr. Popo can find work for you to do."  
  
"Perhaps he can do the work on his own," Niy retorted, so angry she could burst. "I'm not your slave, your servant, or another measly little Namek for you to manipulate. I am Niy, an organic creation of Dr. Gero, a fighter who has a free will to pick and choose who I want to fight and when I want to do it. I didn't want to wash up on the island, and I didn't want to see your ugly face, but I guess we all don't get what we want now do we?!"  
  
Piccolo bared his teeth in sudden anger and slapped Niy hard across her face with the back of his hand. The sound of a giant "crack" shattered the area when he made contact, and Niy fell on her side on the tiled floor.  
  
Niy spat the blood out of her mouth and used a carefully balanced hand to wipe the dribble of blood that had dripped down her chin from her lower lip. She glared at Piccolo then with a hate so pure and thick that it seemed to smother the air around her.  
  
Dende looked back and forth between Piccolo and Niy with frightful eyes. He hoped that they wouldn't blow up his home. Mr. Popo had just finished the major revisions from Garlic Jr.'s reign of terror!  
  
Niy got up slowly and purposefully. With a steady gait and firm footing she walked over to Piccolo, grabbed his shirt, and lifted him into the air with her left hand.  
  
"Do NOT mock me, Piccolo," she said in a voice heavy with poison. "At my full strength you would never stand a chance. You want to know something about my past? Know this; Dr. Gero worked for a far deeper, stronger, and more evil cause that that of the Red Ribbon Army and that cause is coming to Earth. It will win." With those full words, she let go of Piccolo who easily landed on his feet.  
  
"What do you mean? What is this 'cause' you're telling me about," Piccolo demanded angrily.  
  
Niy smirked and said nothing. Piccolo tried breaking into her mind, but she had wiped away any significant thought he would want to trace.  
  
Dende thought for a minute and his eyes unfocused. His mind sped from the safety of Earth's blanketing atmosphere and into the empty space of the solar system. His eyes widened in fear as he said, "Piccolo, there's a space pod entering our solar system."  
  
Piccolo gaped at him in shock, totally unsure if what to do.  
  
Niy's smile grew as the Namek's discomfort did. "They're coming," she said. 


	9. The Unforgiven(9)

"Who's coming," demanded Piccolo. When Niy didn't answer, Piccolo said, "Damn you," and shoved her against a temple wall. "Tell me what's coming!"  
  
"Get your hands off me," Niy spat, snarling in anger.  
  
"You have ten seconds before I go and search for the answer in your head. You will feel a pain unlike anything you've known," Piccolo growled.  
  
"If I can survive drowning then I can survive anything you can dish out!'  
  
Piccolo roared with frustration as he punched her deep and hard into her gut. She hunched over in breathless pain as he kicked her across the tiled floor, her back slamming against a tree. Niy screamed in pain from the sudden impact, but gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. She limped to her feet and bent over and snapped a dislocated knee back into place. She stretched her muscles and relaxed into a cool confidence.  
  
"Just try and get into my head and we'll see what happens."  
  
Piccolo murmured some bad Namek words and formed his mind into an arrowhead, launching it into Niy's consciousness. He found himself up against fantastic mental wards, and his mind was barreled away from his target. Narrowing his consciousness, Piccolo reshaped it into a complete arrow and sped himself into Niy with all of his might. To his surprise he found that no matter how hard he impaled himself onto them, he couldn't break through. With a gasp from his body, Piccolo retreated back to his own head.  
  
"Try it again and see what happens," Niy sneered haughtily. "It's too bad you do not know what occupies the space pod. It makes me wonder- how do you know if it's friend or foe?"  
  
"You said-" the Namek started.  
  
"I said nothing," Niy hammered back. "If you are so intent on seeing the being who is in there, let me give you a word of advice," Niy stiffly spoke and paused to make sure she was clear.  
  
Piccolo mutely snarled and waited for her reply.  
  
Niy frowned and yelled, "Go to the fucking ship and find out for yourself, jackass!"  
  
Piccolo felt the little red line snap inside of him; he was so infuriated. He had had enough. He spread his legs, fisted his hands, bent his arms to his sides, and powered up for all that he was worth.  
  
The tile floor shattered as white flames licked and teased his green figure. Pieces of stone spiked themselves through and up in the air while the clouds swelled and covered the extra light given off by the sun. He yelled in his deep, throaty, demonic voice as the surf of power crashed through his veins and drenched the rest of his body in levels upon levels of ki.  
  
Niy raised her hands over her head, trying to shield herself from the shards of rock that launched themselves into the fray and onto her already bruised body. She gazed into Piccolo's blanked eyes that were dripping with rage and a desire for blood, woth a surprise and a horror.  
  
"There's no backing out now," Niy thought to herself as Piccolo's focus twisted inside of her. "There's only the fight and even if I'm not myself, I'll be damned if I let him make a fool out of me." 


	10. The Unforgiven(10)

From outer space, the Earth suddenly seemed to change. The deep blue of the planet's seas that on past occasions had inspired an artistic quality unmatched by anything man-made, dulled and greyed until it became completely lacking of any particular quality at all. The land which before had such a unique vision of texture that an onlooker could tease with their tongue and taste in their mouth, darkened and blurred like the faded streaks of finger drawings on a steamed up mirror.  
  
From the incoming pod's position, the Earth had now become the equivalent of the insides of an intergalactic drain pipe. The youthful face inside the pod gently frowned. She had not expected this. What was happening inside those now thinned clouds of string that wrapped and knotted themselves across Earth's gaseous atmosphere?  
  
The youth's frown deepened. "Niy could be in trouble," she thought. The youth sorted through her new-found thoughts quickly and came up with a conclusion with a quick and deadly certainty. With her long, anorexically thin, and bony fingers that each ended in a long curved talon, she tapped the buttons of her main controls and turned the long-ranged scanners off.  
  
"I'm coming, Niy," she thought with a serious determination that was surprising for someone that looked so childish. Pressing a few more controls, the space pod responded by adding power to its engine; traveling at its maximum speed. The pod shot past Saturn, arrived at, and passed Jupiter within the blink of a second. It dodged the asteroids with a hurried grace, took a quick skip past Mars, and charged into Earth's atmosphere where the red heat of friction swallowed it whole.  
  
With a few more taps of her slender fingers, the pod steamed with pressure as it halted its entry into earthen air. The space pod more or less madly floated down to an island's sandy soil where its arrival was announced with nothing more than a spray of dirt.  
  
The hydraulics of the small pod angrily hissed as the hatch to the pod was forced open. The alien climbed out with a graceful, light step that left the most subtle of footprints on the loose dry surface of the island. Underneath the dulled and grayed sky, her body melted into the background without any help. She stretched her wings unceremoniously into the bland air and with one slight flap flew in the air, twirling and spiraling as if a living miracle had just deemed the planet worthy enough of it's presence.  
  
Immediately, the creature from outer space pinpointed Niy's power signature in her mind and shot toward it with a speed that grew and almost defied the sound barrier.  
  
"I'm coming Niy," she thought. "I can feel you're despair and I'm coming." 


	11. The Unforgiven(11)

Niy's lungs smoothed from a rough heaving to a subtle intake of air. She closed her eyes and let herself this one time, and never again, pray for her control over the power that was once hers to call on, to use, to destroy. Her eyes shot open and in a solid beam of light the ki, her ki, exploded into the sky in a pillar of heavenly white. She smiled and laughed with a full throat as she grinned and looked at the enraged Namek before her. He growled at her with the whole of his anger. She smirked at him and licked her lips.  
  
Piccolo's eyes darkened back into pupils and he put his hands together so that each fingertip tip touched the same finger of the opposite hand. He felt his veins pulse and the power of his ki burn hotly in his blood. He focused his energy through his fingers and inside the space between his hands a ball of yellow fire flashed slowly, and then more quickly into existence. Soon the ball blazed inside his cupped hands and it was then that he finally acknowledged Niy's presence.  
  
He bared his teeth and said in a low, vibrating demonic voice, "Take this shot if you dare! MASENKO!!!"  
  
The yellow fire shot from him in a roaring inferno that eased its way through the air and took a deadly aim onto Niy's body.  
  
Niy stood there and embraced the power as she evaporated from vision.  
  
Piccolo grinned his evil one-sided grin and watched the tiles that were once around Niy's fly, blacken, and disintegrate into dust. Any remnants of Niy's body seemed to have become one with the dust. His smile grew wider and a chuckle tumbled out of his throat. It had all been too easy.  
  
"NOOOOO," screamed a random voice from above him. Piccolo froze in surprise, but quickly recovered and jerked his head up into the sky to see what had made the sudden shout. His eyes first noticed the lilac purple skin that spread smoothly over her very skinny and bony muscles and limbs. Her human-like toes and hands were each taloned with a claw of the deepest violet. Her wings were like a bat's, but cloud-gray and soft looking with a hint of elasticity. Her white tendrils of hair were wound into a ponytail on the back of her head, but all these things together could not combine the astonishment he felt when he looked into her eyes. Her childish face around her eyelids tremored in arriving sobs and her bottom pink lip stuck out a little. Her crystal clear eyes seemed to have shattered as they focused on the scene below her. Her expression was the exact same expression that he had seen on Gohan right before he had died and something deep inside Piccolo began to throb in pain.  
  
Piccolo lowered his head and erased his smile. "Damn that Niy freak," he thought. "After death she haunts me still." A sudden gasp from the figure above him made him suddenly glance to where Niy once stood. Before him, the smoke and dust and everything else had cleared, and there was Niy, among the living, standing untouched, breathing, smiling.  
  
Piccolo scowled in disbelief, but inside some part of him felt alleviated that she was still alive.  
  
"Niy, your alive," the Namek heard the creature exclaim joyfully above him. All he got was a purple blur for a warning as the child dived over his head for Niy and swung around her in a big hug.  
  
Niy stood solid and impassive with the child around her neck and looked Piccolo in the eye. "I hope that wasn't your best shot. It was such a waste of good ki." She eyed the Namek as he frowned and continued, "However, in light of what has just happened and the fact that you're not as weak as I thought you were, I guess I can trade some information."  
  
"Trade, huh? What do you want from me," Piccolo responded, snarling.  
  
Niy lightly began stroke Mia's head without looking at her, making sure the Namek was aware he had her full attention. Mia closed her eyes in relaxation, and comfort.  
  
"I want you to train Mia," she said, "That is my price." 


	12. The Unforgiven(12)

There was a hot yellow flame flickering in the dark before him. It sparked and spit embers when he realized it was going out. It was so dark he couldn't see his own hand. He was just inches from touching the light when it snuffed itself out before him. He heard his father's shamed voice chastise him, he heard Frieza's voice mock him as he shivered in fear, and he heard the laughter of a certain Saiyan named Kakorrat speak the harsh truth of things. He would never be as powerful as Goku was. Never. A scream of despair filled the void and he realized he was the one screaming. And then, he woke up.  
  
Vegeta threw back the sheets and sat up straight on his bed, bathed with sweat and his body shivering in fear. His ragged pants of breath slowly softened as he rubbed his hands nervously across his face. It scared him that he could show his own fears so readily when he, the Prince of the Saiyans, made a point of showing how he was anything but afraid. It was cowardice and weakness to allow fear to enter one's mind.  
  
Vegeta clenched the mattress of his bed so hard while trying to brace himself from his own depths of self-loathing and anger that he tore it to shreds with his bare fingers. His father never had reached this level of power, Frieza had been killed by his own son, and the only reason Kakorrat was so damn powerful was because he was there to keep challenging him.  
  
"So why am I still afraid," he whispered to himself in his harshest tone of voice. He bared his teeth and moved his focus into the palm of his left hand. He could never forgive himself for his own weaknesses. He moved his fingers up and down as if pondering the mysteries of man.  
  
It was then he felt it. He felt the Namek's power level, even though it was far away, respond inside of him. Vegeta concentrated on the location of the ki signature and looked out of the window as if he could see the fight occurring from his position in the room. He felt another power, a foreign power, rise and his eyes widened as he saw the truth of the depths of the power Piccolo was up against. Vegeta sat stunned and for a full second it seemed like he wouldn't move again. What he had felt…  
  
Vegeta blinked and got off the bed, never-minding the chill of the air on his naked skin. He went over to the one chair in the room and lifted his folded Saiyan uniform from the seat, quickly changing. Tugging on his white boots, Vegeta opened the sliding glass window and hesitated as he caught the glimpse of a light in Bulma's room next door. He looked at it for a breath with a blank expression on his face and turned back towards where he had felt the power levels come through before. Calling on his power, he blasted into the air and never looked back.  
  
Trunks, just a baby still, opened his eyes from a drowsy sleep and felt the presence of his father leave him. His lips quivered for a moment and tears fell down his cheeks as he started to wail inside his crib. Bulma mumbled something incoherent as she walked over, eye-lids half- opened, to see to Trunk's needs. 


	13. The Unforgiven(13)

Ever wonder about the title? Well here is the reason it's named that. Want to read more about Niy, Piccolo, Vegeta, and the rest of the gang (soon to come)? Want to know what's going to happen next? Well for one thing, the bad guy is called The Emperor. No, that does not sound good. For another thing, a being from the future comes back to visit unexpectedly. Gee, I wonder who that could be (note heavy sarcasm). More of your favorites soon to come on DBZK (Dragonball Z: the Killing). If you have any suggestions or would like to see a certain character make an appearance or something, e-mail me at niyrocks@msn.com . I hope you all enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoy writing them! Until Nothing Else Matters –  
  
niyrocks  
  
  
  
The Unforgiven  
  
By: Metallica  
  
New blood joins this earth  
  
And quickly he's subdued  
  
Through constant pain disgraced  
  
The young boy learns their rules  
  
With time the child draws in  
  
This whipping boy done wrong  
  
Deprived of all his thoughts  
  
The young man struggles on and on he's known  
  
A vow onto his own  
  
That never from this day  
  
His will they'll take away  
  
What I've felt  
  
What I've known  
  
Never shined through in what I've shown  
  
Never be  
  
Never see  
  
Won't see what might have been  
  
What I've felt  
  
What I've known  
  
Never shine through in what I've shown  
  
Never free  
  
Never me  
  
So I dub thee unforgiven  
  
They dedicate their lives  
  
To running all of his  
  
He tries to please them all  
  
This bitter man he is  
  
Throughout his life the same  
  
He's battled constantly  
  
This fight he cannot win  
  
A tired man they see no longer cares  
  
The old man then prepares  
  
To die regretfully  
  
That old man here is me  
  
What I've felt  
  
What I've known  
  
Never shined through in what I've shown  
  
Never be  
  
Never see  
  
Won't see what might have been  
  
What I've felt  
  
What I've known  
  
Never shined through in what I've shown  
  
Never free  
  
Never me  
  
So I dub thee unforgiven  
  
You labeled me  
  
I'll label you  
  
So I dub thee unforgiven 


End file.
